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Chris, Its possible that the surface file actually doesn't contain any 15Z observations if the data stream to your LDM is showing some latency around that time- eg, if your latency is up to an hour, then you may not have received any metar products by 35 after the hour. I tried to check your latency, but it appears that your LDM isn't sending any stats. You probably should checkinto that. As for the GEMPAK ananlysis, if you know that you have received metars for 15Z when OABSFC is run, then we can check into that. I do have a program I can place in contrib that will list out the times in a surface file, or alternately print out the time if it exists in the file. That way, a script can tell if the 15Z surface obs are in the file. The program is in ~gbuddy/nawips-5.4/contrib/sfctime.tar.Z If you want to build this program, download into a clean directory- eg make a directory such as $NAWIPS/unidata/programs/sfctime. The unpack the contents of the tarfile in that directory. You should be able to build with: make all make install make clean I have't updated the Makefile in a while, so if you have trouble, let me know. Running the program can either dump the times in a file: % sfctime $SAO/20000719_sao.gem 000719/0000 000719/0020 000719/0040 000719/0100 000719/0120 000719/0140 000719/0200 000719/0220 ... Or check to see if a certain time exists, % sfctime $SAO/20000719_sao.gem 000719/1500 000719/1500 If the time is returned, then it exists. In a csh, this would look like: set EXIST=`sfctime $SAO/20000719_sao.gem 000719/1500` if($#EXIST > 0) then # time exists...do procesing endif Unfortunately, the program doesn't know any shorthand for the times so you have to enter it as yymmdd/hhmm insteas of just 15 for example. Steve Chiswell Unidata User SUpport >Organization: UCAR/Unidata >Keywords: 200007191605.e6JG5BT09230 >Hello. > >I run OABSFC at about 32 minutes past every hour to process all of my >current surface data maps. But many times, my log files state that I have >specified an invalid time: > >GEMPAK-OABSFC> [TI 2] The time 000719/1500 is not found in the data set. > [TI -2] No valid times entered. > [OABSFC -11] Time cannot be found in >/usr/local/ldm/data/surface/20000719_sao.gem > >That was from my program which was invoked at 1535 UTC. Other times, >however, everything runs normally and I get a plethora of surface data. >Is this a data receipt problem? Other ideas? My input to OABSFC looks >like: > >oabsfc << EOF > SFFILE = ${SFFILE} > GDFILE = $HOME/grids/current_analy.grd > SFPARM = tmpf;dwpf;pmsl;p03c;sknt;p24i;snow;heat;vsby;wceq;uwnd;vwnd > DATTIM = ${hh} > DTAAREA = > GUESS = > GAMMA = 0.3 > SEARCH = 20/EX > NPASS = 2 >r > >e >EOF > >where hh = 15 > >Thanks. > >Chris > >================================================ >| Chris Hennon Ohio State University | >| Tropical Meteorology address@hidden | | | >| Dept of Geography Office: 1155 Derby Hall | >| 1036 Derby Hall Phone : (614) 292-2704 | >| Columbus, OH 43210 Fax : (614) 292-6213 | >================================================ >